Best way to delay irrigation

[skunkiechris]

Okay, last post of the day I promise

 

I have several programs that check weather conditions just before midnight. If certain conditions exist (excessive rain, etc.) I'd like to delay my irrigation for x number of days. One example, I have a program that runs that checks if more than .2" of rain was received. If it was, it disables the irrigation program, waits 48 hours, then enables it.

 

My question is, is this the best way to do this? I'm wondering what happens if the ISY loses power in the 48 hour period? Also any other things I might have missed here...

 

Thanks!

Chris

[skunkiechris]

Any thoughts on this?

 

Thanks!

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Chris,

 

I think the delay is the best way. Unfortunately ISY cannot maintain the state of programs upon reboot and there's always the possibility of losing the state if there's a power outage. But, for now, the delay is the best way.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[jcthorne]

The difficulty I have is that the weather data for my area is seldom correct for my specific house. The area can get .5 inches of rain without me getting a drop and vice versa.

 

A simple rain sensor on the edge of the roof works great however. Use it to block execution of the watering cycle when its wet.

[skunkiechris]

I'm lucky enough to have a full reporting station about 1/2 mile from my house...so far it's been pretty dead on accurate.

 

My preference is to use the weather data, because I'm using more than just rainfall -- I'm also checking high temp to classify a day as cold, normal, or hot, and adjust watering periods as appropriate.

 

(Have I said today how great this thing is? lol)

 

I'll probably pick up a power supply and plug the ISY into a UPS, since it's sitting in my electronics closet anyway. That'll avoid the risk of it losing track of the "wait" period.

[ryarber]

I use a sliding scale adjusted for rainfall. If there is no rainfall (0-0.2"), I water my turf for 25 minutes and my beds for 15 minutes. I have settings for 0.2-0.4", 0.4-0.6", 0.6-0.8", and 0.8-1". If there has been over 1 inch of rainfall, it does not water at all.

 

I also have a way that I can manually disable the programs. I have a folder called irrigation that contains all the above programs. The conditions for the folder are the dates that I want to water and an additional condition of a KPL button being off. That button is part of a scene that I can activate manually to disable the folder (and thus disable all the programs within). So if I don't want to water for some reason, I can just activate the scene from my iPhone. I use this when I've put out herbicide or when I know there is a thunderstorm on the way or if we have just had a lot of rain in the last few days.

 

When we get variables in 2.8, this task will be much easier.

 

There was another post on this forum about a great way to save the state of a KPL button in the ISY in the event of a power failure.

[Sub-Routine]

 

When we get variables in 2.8, this task will be much easier.

 

There was another post on this forum about a great way to save the state of a KPL button in the ISY in the event of a power failure.

 

This was applicable to older KPLs, newer KPLs remember their previous state.

 

ISY Restores KPL State After Power Loss

 

I like the idea of Enable/Disable folders via programs.

 

Rand